rockabilly69 Posted June 21, 2023 Posted June 21, 2023 Yesterday, I finally got around to switching the pickups around in my 1988 Guild X-170. Although everything was original on the guitar, the original owner swapped the pickups around for some reason. I think because the neck pickup from the factory was a tad hotter dc resistance wise (7.6 k ohm vs 7.1 k ohm). But I wanted to hear the bridge pickup, with the pole-pieces in the correct "pointing toward the bridge orientation". And, I like it better. I thought it was funny that when I pulled the pickups they were labeled, written in pen, bridge and neck (although they were in the wrong positions). And, Guild HB-1 pickups use a terminal strip on the bottom of the pickups, so I could just solder in the pickups without pulling the harness! After reinstalling the pickups, I wanted to dial in the neck pickup tone, so I was listening to some Rich Severson videos, who gets some great neck pickup tones out of Guilds (any many other arch-tops). Well I found this video where he compares a Guild like mine to a Gibson, and a Heritage H-575 Custom. The Heritage sounds sweet... Which one do I like best??? Well I like the Guild, but I've got mine dialed in, and my ear is used to the tone. I really liked the Heritage though, I could easily get used to one of those, and, sad but true, I like the Gibson the least. Which is funny, because I am somewhat of a Gibson fanboy, and I've always wanted a ES-175 I also like how Rich says Rendall Wall taught him the trick of putting small washers between the body and the pickup ring to make the top/sound more vibrant. Here's my Guild with the pickups in the right orientation...
rockabilly69 Posted June 24, 2023 Author Posted June 24, 2023 On 6/21/2023 at 7:17 PM, bolero said: Beautiful guitar!! Thanks c, did you listen to the guitars video? Which one did you like?
kennyv4 Posted June 25, 2023 Posted June 25, 2023 Your Guild looks fabulous. All the guitars sounded great. I wish I owned all three of them. I'm leaning toward the Heritage. Based on Mr. Sevenson's playing, I think he likes the Heritage the most too.
MartyGrass Posted June 25, 2023 Posted June 25, 2023 The cherry Golden Eagle he has came from Rhoadscholar and me. It has a HRW as sounds just great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5NJpja83WQ Your Guild is wonderful as well. Rich is one of my favorites.
rockabilly69 Posted June 26, 2023 Author Posted June 26, 2023 17 hours ago, kennyv4 said: Your Guild looks fabulous. All the guitars sounded great. I wish I owned all three of them. I'm leaning toward the Heritage. Based on Mr. Sevenson's playing, I think he likes the Heritage the most too. If I was playing pure, jazz music, I would go with the Heritage, as I said, I really liked it. But I’m more of a rock player and the block under the bridge of the Guild keeps it from feeding back, which is a problem I’ve had in the past with archtops. And another reason I bought the Guild had a lot to do with the pickups, which I love especially through a cranked amp. Mr. Severson doesn’t really like bridge pickups, I live on them, and the Guild bridge pickup sounds killer in this one. And I should’ve said this upfront, but Mr. Severson‘s Guild doesn’t have the same pickups as mine. It has the newer reissue pick ups, which sound different. It took me a long time to find one that was in the condition I wanted and had those original Guild pickups.
rockabilly69 Posted June 26, 2023 Author Posted June 26, 2023 15 hours ago, MartyGrass said: The cherry Golden Eagle he has came from Rhoadscholar and me. It has a HRW as sounds just great. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5NJpja83WQ Your Guild is wonderful as well. Rich is one of my favorites. That guitar sound killer, and I’m going to try his trick about raising the front of the pickup where he says it makes it sound throatier. have you ever heard of that trick and have you also tried his track of putting washers of the pickup ring to hear more of the top?
bolero Posted June 26, 2023 Posted June 26, 2023 On 6/24/2023 at 1:36 PM, rockabilly69 said: Thanks c, did you listen to the guitars video? Which one did you like? I have not...on my phone a lot lately, crappy sound! Will do soon though...
MartyGrass Posted June 26, 2023 Posted June 26, 2023 I've done the brass washer trick. It's impossible to know if it really matters. But you can buy them really cheaply. I asked Ren Wall if he thinks they make a difference. He replied that some people say so. Then he smiled.
rockabilly69 Posted June 26, 2023 Author Posted June 26, 2023 2 hours ago, MartyGrass said: I've done the brass washer trick. It's impossible to know if it really matters. But you can buy them really cheaply. I asked Ren Wall if he thinks they make a difference. He replied that some people say so. Then he smiled. That doesn't sound like a glowing endorsement of his own trick Although Mr Severson feel that it works for him.
MartyGrass Posted June 27, 2023 Posted June 27, 2023 Ren is a humble person. His hope was that taking the pickup ring off the top it would make more resonance. The same weight lies on the top but is focused on four corners. It may make a difference. I have several guitars that I installed them on. It didn't make enough difference that I could hear, but I left the rings in place. Maybe someone, somewhere will hear the change. The four point system is worth trying and talking about. At least he's thinking.
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